We are a 501(c)(3) social innovation consulting firm based in Cincinnati, Ohio, serving communities locally, regionally and nationwide since 2009.
Our passionate and trustworthy team is deeply committed to lasting social change.
Theory of Change
Our work is rooted in our belief that sustainable social change lies at the intersection of creativity, equity, and leadership. This unique combination of perspectives is highly effective in empowering individuals and teams to develop innovative, collaborative, and inclusive practices in their work.
Build leaders who value creativity and inclusion.
Services
We work with grantmakers, nonprofits (including schools and hospitals), government agencies, and community groups to tackle complex challenges. Our approach is rooted in social justice and human-centered design so that the people most affected by inequity are involved in all steps of the problem-solving process. We also draw inspiration from social change, innovation, and organizational development. We work with partners in four different ways: community-centered design, team-based learning, organizational change, and systems change.
Community-Centered Design
Explore the problem you’re stuck on. It’s hands-on, and sometimes it’s messy, but we’ll be with you every step of the way. Whether it’s a short project or an extensive undertaking, together we’ll explore the issue from all perspectives, and develop ways to address it. See how a children’s hospital is working with community to improve health outcomes.
Services
• Empathy-driven qualitative research
• Ethnography
• Community engagement
• Divergent idea generation
• Prototype coaching, implementation, and evaluation
Team-Based Learning
Equip leaders with social innovation tools. Think of our programs as BYOC (Bring Your Own Challenge): we provide the structure, tools, and guidance to think differently about your problem. We borrow best practices from innovation, social change, and leadership, but no program looks the same. Explore how we are transforming the Cincinnati non-profit community through design based education.
Services
• Program design and facilitation
• “Train the Trainer” models
• Capacity building
• Curriculum development
Organizational Change
Re-envision your organization. Oftentimes social change has just as much to do with external forces as it does with our own organizational structures, mindsets, and teams. We’ll introduce you to creative and inclusive strategies so you can change culture, collaborate across difference, take smarter risks, and try new ideas. Read how the City of Nashville learned to creatively address pressing civic issues.
Services
• Organizational development
• Process design and facilitation
• Inclusive Strategy Development
• Team building
Systems Change
Coordinate impact. If we want to create systems change, we know it takes collective action across sectors. With you and your partners, we’ll map the landscape, push the conversation, increase adaptive capacity, and design around the roadblocks. We’ll customize the process and facilitation to increase stakeholder engagement, reduce system complexity, and improve outcomes for your clients. The path isn’t easy, but with the right process and facilitation, we can create a new path forward.
Services
• Network Building
• Systems-level Strategy
• Policy Co-creation
• System Mapping
History
Design Impact (DI) was founded in 2009 by Kate Hanisian and Ramsey Ford at the intersection of design and social change. As a learning organization, we’ve iterated on our model over the years so that our work is as thoughtful, sustainable, and impactful as possible. Browse the slideshow below to see one highlight from each of our first 10 years and learn more about the evolving nature of our work.
LAUNCHING IN INDIA
(2009)
Design Impact started out as two people and a prototype in India. Thanks to a transformative investment from an innovation design firm, Kaleidoscope, Kate Hanisian and Ramsey Ford were able to shape what would become DI. Kate and Ramsey’s interest and experience in international work led them to their first partner, a community-led NGO in southern India called ODAM. In fall 2009, we obtained our 501(c)3 status and officially became a nonprofit.
Ramsey Ford and Kate Hanisian, co-founders of Design Impact, in the early stages of planning Design Impact, India.
THE BRIQUETTE PROJECT
2010
One of our first projects explored how to reduce indoor air pollution caused by woodburning stoves. We worked with community experts to design a better smokeless charcoal briquette. Learn more about the briquette project here.
From left to right: Seemaichamy, Ramsey, and Muthu making briquettes at ODAM, Thiruchuli, India.
FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM LAUNCH
(2011)
Thanks to our work with ODAM, other NGOs in India reached out for design support. Designers also reached out to ask how they could get involved. We launched our fellowship program in 2011 to match designers from around the world with organizations who wanted to deepen their capacity for innovation.
Fellows lived and worked in India, embedded in community-led NGOs to tackle different projects. Through our fellowship, funded by Kaleidoscope and the National Endowment for the Arts, we hired ten designers to work on six projects over two years.
(From left to right): Brian Gough, Mario Varon, Jed Farlow, Kate Hanisian, Ramsey Ford, Ali Maiorano, Anisha Shankar, Josh Treuhaft, Anuradha Pati at Design Impact’s first fellowship training.
THE LADDOO PROJECT
(2012)
The Laddoo Project redesigned tasty Indian treats to reduce malnutrition in children. Led by Deep Griha Society in Pune, India and DI fellows Anisha Shankar and Jaskeerat Bedi, the project focused on locally-sourced and owned models and showed sustainable and impressive results. To read more about the laddoo project, click here.
Community members give ideas and feedback at Deep Griha Society in Pune, India on the design and implementation of the Laddoo Project, aimed at reducing malnutrition in children.
PAUSE AND PIVOT
(2013)
Four years in, we took a pause from the fellowship to reflect on our model, test other ways of working, engage new partners, and share what we learned through our work partnering designers with social change organizations. To read the full report funded by the Tarsadia Foundation, click here.
Cover from Design and the Social Sector: A Guide to Partnering, a report written by Design Impact to guide designers interested in social change on how to implement successful engagements with nonprofit partners.
STUDIO C LAUNCH
(2014)
With a renewed focus on US-based projects, we looked at how social design could affect change in our region. We partnered with United Way of Greater Cincinnati in 2014 to launch Studio C, a social innovation lab for nonprofits. Organizations from across the region innovated on their models and prioritized the lived experience of the communities they served.
Over four years, more than 150 organizations went through Studio C to learn and practice human-centered design in the social sector.
Team members from the University of Cincinnati Center for Community Engagement and MORTAR give each other feedback on ideas in Studio C.
A LOOK AT SYSTEMS CHANGE
(2015)
Our work in systems change began with seven collective impact organizations who came together to tackle specific challenges in our region. The backbone groups explored how human-centered design could increase community engagement and community will in collective impact models.
We shared what we learned at the Aspen Institute, the Collective Impact Forum, and through Stanford Social Innovation Review.
Stephanie Byrd and other collective impact leaders mapping systems at a Design Impact workshop.
RESIDENT RESEARCHERS
(2016)
To improve health outcomes for children in Cincinnati, we turned to parents who saw the effects of health disparity firsthand. We explored a peer researcher model for the first time — residents worked with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital as leaders and researchers to create change in their own neighborhoods.
A handful of community-led pilots emerged from the work, including Justice Promoters, a program run by community members to address housing inequity. The pilot was recently awarded honorable mention in Fast Company’s 2019 World Changing Ideas competition.
To read more about how we engaged community on this project and others like it, read here and here.
Peer researcher Dominique Love and Design Impact staff member Amy Howton present their team’s ideas at a community-wide brainstorming session, led by Design Impact.
METATHEMES RELEASE
(2017)
After years of hearing similar insights from different sectors, issues, and projects, we spent a year synthesizing stories from hundreds of people experiencing poverty to examine common themes. Our Metathemes: Designing for Equitable Social Change report was shared with hundreds of community members and systems leaders around the country. The report has been used to train university students in equitable community change and to frame how funders and nonprofits design systems. We also use it to ensure our projects and internal practices are rooted in community voice.
Design Impact staff and volunteers sift through thousands of insights to craft six “metathemes” — or pervasive, cross-sector patterns — that serve as guidelines for equitable systems change.
FOOD BANK INNOVATION
(2018)
We spent a year with Feeding America and food banks across the country exploring new ways to address food insecurity among older adults. Seniors worked with their local food banks in Washington, DC, Pittsburgh, northern Illinois, and southern Arizona to develop and test new ideas.
The project helped food banks innovate on their models. More importantly, it inspired new collaborative models placing people who are experiencing the challenges as the experts. To watch a short video about this work, click here.